Subject: RE: Lyr Req: jennifer, jenny, rosemary?
From:
Malcolm Douglas
Date: 16 May 05 - 01:35 PM
I see that a list of links has now appeared at the top of the page; you will find them helpful.
I'll add a couple more:
Ruggleton's Daughter of Iero (two Somerset examples, with tunes)
The Daughter Of Peggy, O (the second Somerset version quoted above, as edited for The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, 1959)
Number 277 in Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Whatever we may think of the story, the fact remains that it has been a very widespread and popular song-group, appearing in many forms and under many names. Few 20th century folk-song collectors failed to come across it, sung by women as well as men (it also appears in various nursery-rhyme collections). For three versions recorded from Ozark tradition between 1959 and 1972, see The Max Hunter Folk Song Collection.
The basic story is quite old. Child thought it likely derived from a broadside ballad issued in London in the later 16th century, A merry jeste of a shrewde and curste wyfe lapped in Morrelles skin for her good behauyour.
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sj
